If you are an eLearning manager, you’ve likely experienced similar frustrations as I have in the process of building and deploying eLearning products. This post examines the pain points we sometimes experience and how they can be resolved. A tale of two elearning authors Easy-to-use authoring tools and a systemized process are key factors that help to create a high-performance eLearning development team. But frustration seems to always hold back eLearning teams. According to Steve Penfold, director at Elucidat, it was out of conversations with such frustrated eLearning managers that Elucidat was developed. "We wanted to make developing eLearning as straight forward for teams as possible, without compromising the end product," he said. To show you just how frustrating developing eLearning can be, I want to share a story - a story of two eLearning managers, Bob and Lucy. Both these people work in enterprise organizations and both manage teams of eLearning authors. Let’s examine the differences between Bob and Lucy’s experiences. Meet Bob: He uses a desktop authoring tool First up is Bob. Bob’s team uses desktop tools to develop, assemble and publish digital files. Desktop tools do what they say on the tin: they work off your desktop. This presents a challenge for Bob. His team of talented authors needs to be working on the same project simultaneously so they can build it quickly and get it deployed. Bob’s team has two common problems that hold back productivity: Multiple versions of the same file. Everyone has their own copy of the files, which means there are multiple versions containing different updates. Version control. No one is sure which version is the most current. Sound familiar? Bob is experiencing six common challenges associated with desktop authoring tools: Only one person can work on a file at a time Bob’s project management budget blows out because only one of his team is ever working on the file at a given time. He has to pay for resources that are hanging around - doing nothing - waiting to work on the file. Project files need to be stored on local machines Bob has to ensure that all project files are on local machines and not still on the network. A lot of desktop tools don’t work well across a network, so doing so means risking crashing the software, or worse, corrupting the file. So unless Bob is super organized or has set up an SVN (sub-versioning software) to run a system of check ins/check outs with file merger capabilities, he still goes to sleep at night worrying about multiple versions of the same project and version control! Poor old Bob. Authors working in different locations have to use VPN’s What’s more, Bob has to manage eLearning authors working in different locations. VPNs (virtual private networks) help him manage that, but he still has the issues associated with working with desktop tools. Team members have to take files off the VPN, work on them on their local machine and then re-upload them over to the VPN again. Authors need to install software on their local machines Every member of Bob’s team needs to have the tools loaded onto their local machines. A check-out system is also needed to prevent multiple people from working on a file and then inadvertently creating multiple versions. Additional software required to log and track changes Bob also needs to use software to log and track changes. Whilst SVN software such as Tortoise shows changes and helps resolve conflicts, it’s an added step that slows down the eLearning development process. Maintenance costs If Bob needs to update a course, he needs to find the files, make the changes and then republish it. This is time consuming and expensive. Meet Lucy: She uses a cloud-based authoring tool Lucy runs a team of office-based and remote eLearning authors. She overcomes the challenges of desktop authoring tools by using a cloud-based tool. Collaborate in the cloud Lucy’s tool has a development environment for all the projects the team is working on and one shared file for each project. Her team can work on one project file with no requirement for proprietary software to be loaded on each member of her team’s machine. One up-to-date file version Lucy doesn’t have the headache of having to deal with multiple versions of files. Each project file automatically gets updated with changes and additions. Her team members can work on a project file simultaneously without having to upload and download each time they need to make a change. In Lucy’s authoring tool, a project file is always the most recent, incorporating everyone’s updates - all of the time. Track and log updates Lucy’s tool incorporates features that help her track updates. There’s a comment tool that lets team members, subject matter experts and clients add notes for the rest of the team. She can quickly see what changes or additions have been made or requested and by whom. Lucy can throw away her separate spreadsheet she uses for tracking bugs and changes. No VPN, SVN or network needed Lucy’s team doesn’t need a VPN, an SVN, proprietary software or even a network; they just need a computer with a browser like Chrome and an internet connection. Lucy’s cloud-based authoring tool brings all the development together into one easy-to-use environment. This empowers her team to work more productively since they are not restricted by the challenges of a desktop tool. Lucy is able to deliver projects on a tighter time frame and at a lower budget. Take the pain out of elearning development by using a cloud-based authoring tool Cloud-based authoring tools - like Elucidat - provide an umbrella environment that brings all the tools an eLearning team needs together into one ecosystem. Whilst Bob is still using multiple tools throughout the eLearning development cycle, Lucy is streamlining development with one simple tool. Elearning managers can realize three key benefits when they move to a cloud-based authoring tool: Clear process: all the stages - design, build, test and iterate - are handled in one system Holistic: no need to switch to other software for reviewing, commenting and tracking changes Improved productivity: teams can work simultaneously on projects whilst the software merges workflows and keeps everything current Sometimes, we assume improvements to budget, time and resource functions within the project lifecycle will come at the expense of quality, but this is not the case with the new generation of eLearning software. Authoring tools like Elucidat do not compromise quality of the end product because they are designed with best practice and compliance in mind. These tools help learning managers develop best-practice eLearning while providing their team with the technology to be creative and work productively. To help you visualize exactly what is possible with a cloud-based authoring tool, take a look at these eLearning examples that have been built with Elucidat: Utility Warehouse: New Starter Training Medieval Swansea: Interactive eLearning Game Open University: To Lie Or Not To Lie Connect Group: The Golden Rules The post How to use cloud authoring tools to overcome the pains of developing elearning appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

This week I’m talking about Needs Assessments. Why? 1 - They are critical (and I’ll tell you why) and 2 - I received a call yesterday from a developer at another university; they were inquiring about the cost of developing 1 hour of training - when  I asked them a few probing questions, they were clearly in the infancy stage of their process and had not considered many of the variables they should have been considering. This happens often. So, you’ve got my attention, but what IS a needs assessment? A needs assessment typically occurs within the Analysis phase of development and involves a collection and synthesis of information to appropriately determine training needs or if training is even necessary. A needs assessment will identify whether there are any training gaps that need to be closed, and if so, which training needs exist. Not all problems are training problems (although many are). But why is a needs assessment so important? As I mentioned to the developer yesterday, it is essential to assess your client’s (or potential client’s) needs and have all of that information documented so they can sign off on (or agree to) what they want developed. Your needs assessment may identify what type of training may be deemed most effective in addressing the training need, and this information is important for clients. A needs assessment will help you write a detailed Statement of Work (more on that in a coming week), and will provide your clients with greater clarity with regard to their training needs. For example, a 1 hour computer-based training session may be more effective (and efficient) than a half day seminar. Or perhaps the issue is one necessitating practical training, in which case on-the-job training may be needed. Alright, Alright Basically a needs assessment can save your tail (and time) and keep your clients happy. You want to be revered as one who develops necessary training and as someone who solves problems, not someone who wastes the time and resources of their clients and/or their client’s employees. That’s really a high-level overview of needs assessments, so if you’re looking for more information, here are several resources: Learning and Training Needs Assessment, as explained by Don Clark Methods for Conducting an Educational Needs Assessment - Paul F. McCawley Learning Needs Assessment: Assessing the Need - Janet Grant  Needs Assessment Idea (Free Download) - Craig Von Korlaar Like this post? Want more Instructional Design tips? Sign up below!  

Elearning teams are made up of many different personalities and often distributed across cities in different geographic regions of the world. To ensure your projects are delivered on time, you need to learn the most effective project management skills. I’ve curated five of my favorite articles on elearning project management. Take a read and me know what you think of them by leaving a comment below. 1. 5 Project Management Tips for Geographically Dispersed Elearning Teams When working with elearning teams, or any team for that matter, teamwork and collaboration are an essential for success. Maricel Rivera believes that while while collaboration is certainly not something you pluck off Walmart’s shelves, there are tried-and-proven ways to make collaboration easier for teams. Here are Maricel’s five project management tips to encourage collaboration and boost productivity 2. 6 Steps For Holding A Successful Elearning Project Kickoff Meeting If you’re looking for a comprehensive guide for how to get your elearning project off to an amazing start, then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, Christopher Pappas offers some helpful advice that you can use to make your next eLearning project kickoff meeting a success. Learn how to hold a successful elearning project kickoff meeting 3. We Need to Talk: 3 Must-Have Conversations for Better Elearning Project Management Elearning projects are like any relationship, communication is key. Without the right channels of information at the right time, your relationship with your eLearning company or designer could be more frustrating than fruitful Simon Casuto’s shares his three must-have conversations you need to have before starting an elearning project 4. Tips for E-Learning Project Management and Pedagogy Fit Have you ever been caught in the middle between what a project sponsor or subject matter expert (SME) wants to deliver and what you know to be good learning design? Here are six questions to ask before starting a project 5. 7 Time Management Tips For eLearning Professionals In this article, Christopher Pappas shares seven helpful tips on how to save time and meet deadlines when designing and developing your eLearning deliverables. For elearning that is complicated and time consuming, these time management tips can help you to stay on track and significantly boost productivity. Discover Christopher’s 7 time management tips The post Elearning project management ideas to help you create more effective elearning appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

(Image credit: David Anderson) Hat’s off to David for this week’s e-learning challenge - this was a fun one! I’ve never been interviewed, but I feel like it helped me out in chatting candidly (or kind of candidly…alright…not really at all - I scripted myself haha) - something I’m going to be doing next month at the E-Learning Heroes Community Workshop in Toronto…I’m scared! The Concept This week, we were tasked with recording our responses to the following 10 questions: - Tell us a little about yourself and the types of e-learning projects you most enjoy. - How did you become an e-learning or instructional designer? - What are the essentials of good e-learning design? - Tell me about your most successful e-learning project. - What are the most important criteria in evaluating e-learning? - What are some common mistakes new course designers make and how can they avoid them? - How is designing mobile learning different than designing for the desktop? - How do you evaluate whether your course was effective? - How do you keep up your skills and stay current in the industry? - What is the future of e-learning? The Method I loathe public speaking and I’m working on getting better, so the first thing I did was script my responses to these questions, because I’m really not great at responding to questions on the fly. After scripting out all of my responses, I hit up Camtasia and recorded (and re-recorded) all of my responses! I exported to .wav format (thanks advanced export options!) and uploaded the entire playlist to Soundcloud, added tags and a description, and saved the playlist - easy peasy! The Result You can listen to my recording, below (or by clicking here), in all of it’s awkward glory - hopefully you find my responses insightful or informative - that was the goal!

First off - I have to admit that as I type this, I’m pushing out a couple of responsibilities…or procrastinating…or not being productive. I’m justifying it by keeping an eye on the lasagna I have in the oven (supper made - productive, no?!) and throwing the frisbee for our dog. The topic of productivity came up today, so I felt like I should probably chime in and offer my two cents; hopefully someone finds these tips useful! 1. Find productive background noise. Typically, I will listen to podcasts while I work. However, I have a fairly strict rotation of podcasts I listen to (because change is hard!) and when those run out, I find myself consulting some background noise that allows me to be productive while I work. Here are some examples: Consult Songza Concierge and choose something that doesn’t overwhelm you! For me, I tend to veer towards the Mellow Indie playlists because I know I’ll get carried away singing along to anything from the 90s (not productive). Alternatively, they have several stations that just play background noise. Coffitivity claims to increase your creativity, keeping you at your best, by providing some background coffee shop noises. A lot of people find this helps boost their productivity; however, after five years of managing a busy Starbucks, this type of background noise stresses me out as I’m constantly waiting for the ‘rush’. Stereomood was one of my favourite things to stream in my last cube farm job. 1 - we didn’t have a lot of options for things we were able to stream and this one was obscure enough that it hadn’t been blocked, and 2 - it lets you base your selections based on mood  (Songza concierge does this too - but Stereomood came preceded Songza for me). 2. Let technology help you with your productivity. There are tons of applications out there to help you with your productivity, and a few things I’ve heard good things about include: Todoist is a to do list and task manager application; it allows you to enter in tasks (and group them under projects), and you can check things off the list as you complete each task (and we all know how fulfilling that can be)! Inbox Pause - I don’t use this yet because I haven’t reached that level of popularity (either that or my clients have been very considerate), but I have friends and colleagues who use this and swear by it. Inbox Pause lets you set an ‘away message’ of sorts, letting folks know that you’ll respond when you’re available. Your email inbox is then paused and you are no longer distracted by all of the emails coming in (until of course you’re ready for such distraction). Unroll.me has been the answer to all of my prayers! I cannot even explain to you how life altering this very simple procedure is. It’s free and it lets you select which subscriptions (I know they’re piling up in your inbox) you want to free yourself from (unsubscribe from) and which ones you want to receive in a daily ‘roll up’. This has been AH-MAY-ZING for me! Everyday I get my little digest and scroll through - if there’s been any action in the communities I’m apart of, I’ll take the opportunity to respond at this time instead of distracting myself throughout the day. 3. Group like items. I’m not the most organized person on the planet, but one thing I find enhances my productivity is to group like items. Initially, I’ll group items based on delivery deadlines. Once that’s done, I’ll try and do all of my Microsoft Word together, all of my Microsoft PowerPoint work together, and all of my Articulate work together (and so on and so on). This has really helped me boost productivity because I’m not jumping around as often as I once was. I’ve mentioned several times before, but using Parallels for Mac has also helped me out in the productivity department because it’s allowed me to ‘group like items’ in terms of my Operating Systems, and allows me to not jump back and forth between Windows and Mac OS to use some of the programs I use which are only native to one OS or the other.

Elearning Superstars is a curated list of inspiring elearning examples, published every Tuesday. Subscribe to get weekly updates via email. This week we have some great elearning by Nobel Media (The Nobel Prize), TalkTalk and McDonald’s. Showcase your elearning: Have you created a great piece of elearning that you’re really proud of? Showcase your elearning here to win awards and get published on Elearning Superstars. 1. Nobel Prize: Blood Typing Game (Produced by Nobel Media) 2. TalkTalk: Network Understanding 3. McDonald’s: Till Training Game The post Elearning inspiration: Nobel Prize, TalkTalk and McDonald’s appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

This week I thought I would chat a bit about podcasts, because 1 - the weekly e-learning challenge (you can read about it in my previous post - scroll down) inspired me, 2 - I looooove listening to podcasts, and 3 - they’re commonly used within distance higher education courses (albeit, they’re rapidly being replaced for video). What is a podcast and why are they popular? Podcasts can be considered anything requiring a subscription to a digital media download; however, within recent years the subscription part of things is becoming less and less of a necessity. I’ve been seeing more and more folks use podcasts for their opt-in email lists as a way of giving subscribers something extra (and building their lists), but typically, the subscription part is optional nowadays. Podcasting seems to have come into its own within our new information society and with the emergence of smartphones and other portable devices (e.g. iPods) - people want information and they want it now! Or, they want to numb the commute to work with a little bit of education or entertainment. Podcasting in Education One of my contracts is with a local university who was quite the pioneer (at least provincially) with their broadcast distance courses. I remember watching channel 33 when nothing else was on and ‘sitting through’ Psychology lectures as a 10 year old. With the evolution of technology, costly television broadcasts have been replaced by a number of solutions; however, many faculty members I’ve encountered seem to lean in to podcasting as a means for disseminating their lectures; primarily those who were used to the former television broadcast format. Now, there’s good things and bad things about podcasting in education (in my honest opinion). Some good things are being able to reach audiences and simulate a traditional lecture style. Some bad things are that folks often replace their 1 hour video-based lecture with a 1 hour podcast based lecture, and that can be BAD NEWS…especially for individuals who aren’t audio learners. Personally, I have a hard time learning from audio, so I appreciate visuals with complementary audio. Podcasts for education really aren’t my thing…but, I have seen them done well, and those are usually podcasts that are broken down into palatable chunks of information which support the weekly readings in a meaningful way. You seem to support the idea of podcasts, yet you don’t enjoy educational podcasts? What podcasts do you enjoy? I tend to save my learning for more practical and/or visual approaches (supported by audio - sure, but not predominantly audio), but I do really enjoy listening to podcasts. I find myself favouring those podcasts that are interview-based and with hosts who can captivate my attention and make my laugh. Therefore, I listen to a lot of comedian-based podcasts. Some of my favourites include: Totally Laime, Totally Married, and Totally Mommy - Elizabeth Laime and her husband, Dr. Rosen Rosen (er Andy) really take my week to the next level; I find myself listening to all three of their podcasts each week (Monday/Wednesday/Friday) while I muddle through my work. They make me laugh, dish out tons of unqualified advice, and allow me to effectively multi-task. Alison Rosen is Your New Best Friend - I enjoy listening to Alison and her gang; they have two streams per week and the interview style is engaging and relatable. I especially appreciate the tangents she tends to go on and her segment Just Me or Everyone. This Feels Terrible - I don’t tune in on a regular basis, but when I do, I find myself in a McGathy marathon, listening to everything I missed since the last time I tuned in. Erin interviews folks about their experiences with love and relationships, and the stories are often relatable and hilarious (and sometimes sad). So while not quite educational, these podcasts provide a great background noise solution to my work week and seem to amp up (or at least support) my productivity! Like this post? Want more Instructional Design tips? Sign up below!  

Is she coherent?  Watch this much discussed video of a young beauty pageant contestant answering a question posed by the judges.      Thinking Tasks 1. Is Miss South Carolina coherent or not?   2. Read this text and say if it is coherent. Try to answer the following questions: Where was published? Who authored it? What was the author’s purpose for writing it? These children can be said to have two three or more mother tongues neither language is foreign to that child even if one language is a foreign language for the vast majority of people in the childs birth country. On average in Europe at the start of foreign language teaching learners have lessons for three to four hours a week. The Welsh language is also compulsory up to the age of 16 although a formal qualification is optional..In some countries learners have lessons taken entirely in a foreign language for example more than half of European countries with a minority regional language community use partial immersion to teach both the minority and the state language..In 1995 the s White Paper on Education and Training emphasized the importance of schoolchildren learning at least two foreign languages before upper secondary education. Scroll down to the end of the post view the answer.   Definitions: Review the following definitions and choose the best one (or the one you understand best): 1/ Coherence (linguistics) Coherence in linguistics is what makes a text semantically meaningful.It is especially dealt with in text linguistics. Coherence is achieved through syntactical features such as the use […]

Wowee! What a whirlwind of a first quarter this has been! I’m please to say that my greatest fears were not reality, and our house was not foreclosed upon in the first quarter of running my business (I’m sure it takes longer than that to happen…right?). This quarter has been a HUGE learning experience, and I am grateful for all of the help and advice that I have received. Last quarter, I was debating between PancakeApp and BaseCamp for project management software and I decided on PancakeApp. After the initial annoyance of setting it up (5th time was a charm), it’s up and running and keeping my projects running smoothly like a boss. I’m sure I’m not using it to its full potential, but we’re still early days with the business. Over the last quarter I have begun to help other freelancers acquire work with some of my overflow, have been able to become choosier in the projects I decide to work on, have almost perfected (I’m sure that’s an over-statement) the art of scheduling my time, have been asked to write a blog post for ASTD (now ATD)(!!!), took the plunge and agreed to present at my first workshop (next week - eeeeep!), and have experienced far more success and happiness (and frustration) than I could have hoped for in such a short period! I definitely had consistent income this quarter. However, next quarter might be a touch on the low side as I’ve more or less taking July off from work obligations (there are things to be done, but I haven’t taken on many new projects for the month of July) due to a busy wedding season and the workshop. Here’s what you’ve all been waiting for:   Income Report: Part-Time Contracts - 4,897.01 Business Contracts: - Storyboarding - 5,497.51 - Authoring - 2,848.08 - Revisions - 458.97 Total Income: 13,701.57 Expense Report: Workshop Flight - 433.41 Storage - 33.45 Continuous Learning - 150.00 (Leah Kalamakis’ Stress Less & Impress course - check it out!) Total Expenses: 616.86 Total Profit - 13,084.71 (before taxes) What do I think? Fantastic! I’ve been so excited about the growth of my business, and I’m really happy to share my progress with everyone. I will say that I didn’t get to do as much authoring as I would have liked, but I have a great deal of that lined up for the next two quarters.

I would consider it a best practice to ensure that when you cost out an e-learning project you follow your own costing strategy. Otherwise, you risk losing monetary and human resources, which leads to inefficiencies in the flow of your project, and stands to impact future projects/schedules. Here are some tips for saving resources on your e-learning projects: 1. Be specific with your contracts. If you don’t allow room for client’s to find loopholes in your contracts, you save yourself a lot of headache in the long run. When creating your contracts, be very specific when it comes to deliverables and project requirements. If you aren’t sure of what you should include in your contracts, consult the communities you’re active in…or The Google. 2. Beware of scope creep! Scope creep…-shudder-…all too often I’ve seen contractors fall victim to scope creep. Heck! I’ve even been guilting of allowing some of it on my own projects. Scope creep occurs when your client asks for things here or there, and being a doting contractor, you aim to please, so you give them things here and there. However, these are things not outlined in your contract (e.g. things you are not being paid for). Now, there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of scope creep - that’s why we have profit margins! But if you give an inch, sometimes you’ll have to go a mile, and that’s where you really run into problems. Too much scope creep can be expensive! Once you agree on a contract, you should work very hard to stay within the terms of that contract. If you veer, I would recommend that you communicate to your client that X is typically something you charge for, but that you’re willing to waive the fee this once as a courtesy. Often times scope creep can come in the form of additional review cycles; this lengthens the duration of your project and can be costly. Word to the wise - when being specific with your contracts, include a cap on review cycles and revisions to maintain efficiency. 3. Don’t be an over-achiever. This one may seem obvious, but before drafting up a contract, be confident with your abilities to meet the contract. There’s nothing wrong with over-delivering on a client’s expectation, but there is something wrong with being unable to deliver because you’ve over-estimated your abilities. What am I saying? Well - if you’ve just started learning to code, don’t offer to develop a client’s WooCommerce site from scratch with a two-week delivery time. It just ain’t gonna happen. You’ll be disappointed in yourself and your clients will be too. We want to nurture the relationships we have with our clients, not agitate them!

All  Nominated!!! Please vote for them here: http://edublogawards.com/vote-here/     Every year, since I started blogging in 2009, I have made  a point of writing  an Edublogs Awards nominations blog post; I have got so much out of my own nominations that I always want to pass it on to someone who is getting started or who has contributed to my learning Best individual blog Scott Thornbury’s An A-Z in ELT   for the quality of his posts and the great discussions and comments he generates. Every post is an absolute must-read. Best individual tweeter Shellt Terrell @ShellTerrell She has lessons for us all! Best group blog This has to be www.eltchat.org  It’s a blog maintained by its moderators but the content is co-created through the conversations of dozens of twitter teachers which are then written up into summaries by a wonderful collection of ELT bloggers!! Best edtech / resource sharing blog Nik’s Learning Technology Blog  because he always shares new technology tools but he includes highly reflective posts and discusses and evaluates them; combines technology with sound pedagogy Best twitter hashtagblog #ELTchat because it connects hundreds of ELT teachers every week on Twitter and keeps contributing to their development in a free and autonomous way; because it has created a PLN which is supportive and shares knowledge in a connected world.  Best New Blogblog Carol Goodey’s New Blog because it’s the blog of a reflective teacher   Best teacher blogblog Box of Chocolates - Cecilia Lemos’ blog; because she reflects so well on her teaching and uses her blog to become an outstanding teacher. Best free web […]

Pedagogy and andragogy may be mysterious terms to you; I know they sure were when I first became an Instructional Designer, without a background in Education. I would often see these terms crop up in Statements of Work or High-Level Design Documentation to the effect of "following principles of andragogy…" or "adhering to proven pedagogical approaches…". I had heard of pedagogy before this time, but andragogy? That was a new one. It wasn’t until I began my Masters of Education (Post-Secondary Studies) that I fully understood those two terms. Pedagogy and Andragogy Pedagogy can be considered the practice of teaching, and when folks refer to ‘pedagogical approaches’, they’re talking about the methods of teaching used to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes.The term pedagogy is Greek, meaning ‘child’ and ‘lead’ - lead the child - and, in the 21st century, is referenced when specifically discussing the practice of teaching in relation to individuals who have not yet reached adulthood. While the term pedagogy is still used in reference to adults, a newer term has been delegated to the adult learner population - andragogy. Andragogy focuses on the practice of teaching as it relates to adult learners and uses prior learning and life experiences as a basis for relating information. While perhaps not as well-used as the former term, andragogy emphasizes self-directed learning, and the adults tendency toward this approach to learning. Andragogy is a term you may often hear tossed around with greater frequency due to the growth and emphasis of the lifelong learner. Still confused? Check these resources out: MERLOT Pedagogy Portal Introduction to Andragogy + Pedagogy Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide Andragogy (Malcolm Knowles)

This week’s ELTchat topics are once again influenced by the rich set of resources provided by the IATEFL recordings.   The 12 BST #ELTchat will revisit the topic of coursebooks.  Since we’ve covered this topic before  often from the why do we need course books point of view, we realise it might cover some of the same ground but we’d though we’d call the chat "The coursebook authors fight back". Your source material for this chat is, amongst others: The ELTJ Debate You can also read Scott and Catherine‘s follow up blog posts. The decline and fall of coursebooks  - Simon Greenall  For the 21 BST ELTchat: We’re exploring the criteria put forward by Nik Peachey in his talk ‘evaluating web-based tool for learning’

Today I’ll be presenting at the E-Learning Heroes Community Event in Toronto, alongside some amazing folks, and I’m terrified! If you’re here, please be gentle! I plan to share a bunch of anecdotes, but most importantly, I’ll be sharing some work done by several other E-Learning Heroes. [Update: The presentation went well; I had a lot of fun!] Basically, I wanted to discuss portfolio building, why an e-learning portfolio is so important, why creating a portfolio can be a challenge, and why it really doesn’t need to be! You can check out the slides below! How to Build Your E-Learning Portfolio from Ashley_Chiasson Here is a link to the relevant Resource Sheet - Please download this PDF and check out the links at your leisure: RESOURCE SHEET

I recently used the same idea which I wrote about when this blog turned one year old, but here I am reposting it, as I simplified it to make it more accessible to teachers and learners new to blogging.  A variation of this post for learners of English was also posted at My English Club and it was great to see how enthusiastically some of them were and how many blog posts they send me every day into my inbox! So here I am reposting to share my enthusiasm about blogging with you and to make you start blogging too! Why do I blog? Richard St. John shares his eight secrets of success in a fantastic video and I want to talk about blogging and how I think it is connected to these eight great secrets. Here are the eight secrets in a word cloud I blog for all the reasons in the word cloud: I blog because I want to be an excellent educator (Excellence) I blog because I want to share my ideas (Serve Others) I persist even when I am tired; good results need hard work! (Work!) I blog to focus more on my interest and learn more about it (Focus) I blog because this makes me think and learn new things (Push Yourself) I get more ideas by trying to explain my ideas to other people. (Ideas) I blog because I love my job and I am passionate about teaching (Passion) I persist because I believe communicating your ideas is important […]

This week’s e-learning challenge is all about smartphone video training. In a world where smartphones are ever-present, it seems like a really cost-effective solution to record your own training videos to meet basic training needs. Heck. I still consult YouTube for basic procedural information - have you ever had to auger your toilet? It took 29 years for me to get there, and when I did, I swiftly consulted a video tutorial. The Concept This challenge encouraged participants to use their smartphones to record, edit, and publish a training video. Personally, I find video training basic for procedural demonstrations, so I chose to show you the Dos and Don’ts of something I feel most folks can relate to - inserting a duvet into a duvet cover. For YEARS I hated this chore; the Internet wasn’t around when I first started dealing with duvet covers, and I always thought I had to physically insert myself into the cover to complete the task. The end result is cranky and sweaty and no fun - maybe this was my mother’s way of paying me back for the teenage years I made her deal with? Hmmm… In any event, there is a right and wrong way of putting a duvet inside of a duvet cover, and I show you both ways! The Method I set my iPhone up to record video, and had my husband record the two videos, balancing the iPhone on the baby gate to our room (anyone with a herding dog and cats will understand), for stability, while I demonstrated both approaches. Once recorded, I sought out my iMovie app…only to realize I had removed it from my computer in favour of Camtasia. Here I had to do a little bit of challenge cheating, using Camtasia instead of my smartphone app to edit and publish the video. Now, had I not removed iMovie, I would have edited in that - but hey. It’s the thought that counts! I added in some annotations, steps, removed the original audio, and added some background music (in retrospect, there’s a song called Duvet I used to really enjoy…maybe that would have been more appropriate? Ah well!). Once completed, I published and uploaded to Vimeo. The Result Duvet Dos and Donts from Ashley Chiasson on Vimeo.

This is a kind of a chain blog post in which one blogger tags you on their blog and challenges you to answer some questions and then pass the ball to eleven more bloggers! Photo Credit: SnaPsi Сталкер via Compfight Doug Peterson tagged me in this blogging meme.  This is the first time I take part in a blog tagging sort of challenge and am doing it as a break from a pretty heavy weekend of work. This will also give me a chance to tag some pretty cool bloggers myself (who may or may not take up the challenge) but it will give my readers the opportunity to pop over and have a look at their blogs. So here is the task… Acknowledge the nominating blogger- in this case it would be me… Share 11 random facts about yourself. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you. List 11 bloggers. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. Don’t nominate a blogger who has nominated you. 11 Random facts about myself I love playing word games - like Scrabble on Facebook, which I play with Shaun Wilden - and that’s how I met Doug online - he beats me senseless on Word Scramble but I retaliate on Words with Friends (helps to  keep some of my dignity…) I am not a bad watercolour artist, albeit an erratic one and even as I write these lines, I feel a watercolour coming […]

Now, I wouldn’t necessarily classify this as an e-learning term…it’s really more of a User Interface (UI) term, but because the e-learning industry works within a plethora of UIs, I thought it fitting. Also - I met a fantastic lady, Tracy Parish, who developed a presentation on Flat Design, and I really appreciated some of the visuals used within her presentation. Long story short, I’m defining flat design for you folks - hooray! Flat Design, you say?  Contrary to what you might be thinking, flat design doesn’t equate to boring or stale design (think flat soda - not the tastiest). Instead, flat design is an aesthetic approach which highlights two dimensional, minimalist design, using sharp edges, bright colours, and flattened (2D) icons or imagery. Moving with the minimalist approach, flat design does not include text, instead letting the icons or imagery used speak for itself, creating a sleek and clean design. The flat design approach to UI is really a shining example of the Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS) principle! Why overcomplicate things? I really dislike the functionality of Windows 8, so if you want to google their interface, do so at your leisure - I won’t be linking it here. However, their main navigation interface can be considered flat design, and it’s likely one of the more recognizable examples of flat design in practice. Some other examples can be found on the Articulate Community’s Download section, for example: Flat Desktop Exploration Interaction by Tom Kuhlmann or Flat Design Portfolio by Paul Alders. As for my original inspiration for this post, here is a sample from Tracy’s presentation on flat design. Tracy Parish, Used with Permission Resources If you’re interested in checking out some tutorials or additional information about flat design, here are a few resources: - Design a Flat Website Mockup in Photoshop - Flat UI Tutorials - How to Nail the Coveted Flat Design Look (9 Actionable Tips)  - Flat Dropdown Menu Tutorial - Principles of Flat Design  

Storytelling is one of the most important acts of communication. Every day, in our contacts with friends, relatives, colleagues and acquaintances we share stories, anecdotes - things that happened to use, stories we read about in the news, on social media, stories we heard through others. _______________________________ In class, story building and storytelling can get somewhat neglected. Most modern coursebooks have little by way of getting learners to narrate. Photo Credit: Gisela Giardino via Compfight And yet storytelling for fun, storymaking and sharing can be serious or playful, and learners can be given the opportunity to practise producing sustained talk/long turns or write imaginative fiction producing their own stories or story episodes. In another post on this blog, on Digital Storytelling, I talked about the many benefits of using such activities for younger and older learners. Digital tools are wonderful but not available to every teacher and even though I have found some wonderful apps and online tools which you can read about in my other post, paper and pen, the board and our imagination are sometimes the best tools available. My Storymaking Machine  Here is a simpe tool borrowed from surrealist writers’ workshops; apologies for not being able to trace the originator of this idea - not mine originally. Apparently, surrealist writers used the matrices below as a source of inspiration for their writing!!!!! I thought it was a wonderful idea when I saw this and translated it into language learning activities, quite a while ago; in fact this was the topic of a […]

Alrighty - A few weeks back, I hopped on a new project that I’ve really been enjoying. The only downside was that I married into an Articulate Storyline file that was organized in such a way that it quickly became unruly. Unruly? How? This one particular aspect of the project involved creating a sort of library to house seminar videos. Each month, a 4-5 hour seminar would be recorded and I would use Camtasia to break the videos up into more manageable chunks. Each seminar ended up having 18-24 videos…for a duration of 6 months. The original file quickly became unruly because I think there wasn’t as much understanding of how quickly 130+ videos/screens could get out of hand. What transpired was one scene within the Storyline file; this one scene contained all 130+ videos, which made it incredibly difficult to hunt down individual screens when making to the file later on. I know it doesn’t look too unruly from this screenshot, but note the horizontal scrolling. Oof. We ended up resolving to leave this file as is, after all revisions had been made, but I explained that I would be a bit more purposeful and organized in my development of the next 6 month period. But, Ashley…How did you tame the unruliness?! I used scenes! Scenes are basically boxes which contain slides; you can link to scenes just as you would like to slides, but it creates a more organized look and makes managing your Storyline file a biiiiit more manageable. Now, different strokes for different folks - some people might use scenes for different reasons, but for this project - the scenes were set up for ease of use from a development perspective. The starting scene houses the Main Menu. From here, each ‘button’ trigger links to a new scene (which is a Menu for the relevant seminar). All seminar videos are housed within these new scenes. The outcome is this: Phew! SO MUCH easier to look at, eh?! If you don’t give me a resounding ‘yes’, I might cry. In this project, we have 2 seminars (1 of which has yet to be populated). At the end of the 6 month period, there will be 7 scenes: 1 that houses the main menu, and 6 that house each of the seminar videos. I can easily locate the relevant seminar that requires revisions, and life is a lot easier. I realize that talking about scenes may seem incredibly basic, but when you’re a first-time user of Storyline, tasked to find a way of organizing 130+ videos, you will likely end up with an story view as illustrated in the first screenshot, only to realize you’re causing a lot more heartache than necessary. Trust me. If you need to organize a vast amount of slides, USE YOUR SCENES! Hopefully this was relatable and/or helpful to someone! If you have any other questions about using Scenes in Articulate Storyline, definitely reach out to me, and I’ll help out as best I can.

I was first tagged by Doug Peterson and did my first post here but then Maria Theologidou tagged me again with a fresh set of questions. Photo Credit: SnaPsi Сталкер via Compfight Normally, I would have thought, this is quite enough - but the whole ELT blogosphere has been having a blast tagging one another and even those who claim this is rubbish and are doing it, albeit claiming great reluctanc,e are having (we are all having, I should correct myself) a grand time. There is a time to be serious and a time to play and this just as good a place as anywhere to be playful. The other reason, is that I was very pleased to discover Maria’s  blog so it’s a good opportunity for you to pop over there and have a look!! Plus, she is Greek and I am really happy to see Greet ELT teacher bloggers in the blogosphere Apologies if anyone else has tagged me - but you know the rules state you have to let the blogger know in some way   Maria’s 11 Questions and my answers   1. How has your job changed the way you perceive the world?  Good question!!! In the beginning….(drum roll), …. In the beginning, I used to look at everything and think thoughts like "Oh, I could use this to teach X or Y". Well, the sad fact is that I still do that pretty much but not quite with the same intensity.  So I guess you could say, my perception […]

It’s only been a few mere months since I took my business full-time, and one of the best things that has come of it has been that I’m able to be selective, capture my dream clients, and increase my overall work life happiness. When I put together my presentation on How to Build Your Portfolio, I really had to consider some of the most important positives that having a portfolio has garnered for me. The top one was that it allows me to be selective. Now, being selective doesn’t mean that I don’t jump at new opportunities; it just means that I consider the new opportunities before jumping in feet first. This saves me a lot of time and heartache when I realize that I’ve jumped into a contract well below my going rate. With that being said, there are some contracts I would gladly work on for less than what I’m worth because I’m passionate about the organization or the project or both. This doesn’t happen often, but with a stream of steady clients (that my portfolio helped funnel in), I’m able to be choosier about my work. This week I was offered a full-time contract with a local university. I had been working on contract part-time since February, and I had always wanted to move into the Higher Education sector. Where I’m from, it is incredibly difficult to score such a gig by applying the old fashioned way, and I was shocked that a cold email a year earlier had resulted in the procurement of my part-time contract. In any event, I’ll be taking on full-time hours starting in the fall, and this is really where being selective comes into play. I’ll still be running my business, albeit I’ll end up lightening my workload in the coming year, being more selective, and choosing to work on contracts that I’m truly passionate about. The security that the full-time contract brings will allow me some flexibility with regard to my business workload, and I’ll be able to focus on both aspects of my work life that I’m happy to focus on. It’s been a long road to reach both goals: working within Higher Education and starting my own business, and I want to give both roles 100%.  At the same token, I want to ensure that the contracts I accept within my business are ones that align well with my beliefs and serve to enhance my current portfolio. It’s going to be an interesting journey, and I’m excited to take you all along for the ride!

  This is the first of a series of guest blog posts from members of my online ‘family’, my PLN. I am thrilled and  honoured to have Marjorie Rosenberg write her reflections on this topic on my blog,  Marjorie is  an active and prominent member of the ELT community, teacher, teacher trainer, author,  IATEFL BESIG coordinator, on the Membership Committee of IATEFL and regular participant and summary writer for #ELTchat. You can find out all about her on her About.me page and do make sure you visit her blog, Learner as Teacher where she posts her reflections. She is @MarjorieRosenbe on Twitter. Teaching styles and lesson outcomes by Marjorie Rosenberg   A recent ELT chat dealt with the topic of teaching styles and how these affect the outcome of lessons. However, none of us were actually able to come up with a definition of what a teaching style is. Having worked with both learning and teaching styles for many years, I would say in general that a large part of what we would call a ‘teaching style’ reflects the personality of the teacher as well as the way they themselves like to learn. There are many factors to take into account however. Some teachers become ‘friends’ with their students and others maintain a certain amount of distance. Many teachers make use of technology both in and out of the classroom while others are very low tech. There are teachers who write lexis and grammar examples on the board for their students while others prefer that their […]

This week is one of the first wherein Terminology Tuesday hasn’t been prompted by a specific event or discussion the previous week. Instead, I considered some of the challenges new faculty member struggle with when attempting to convert their traditional face-to-face courses to distance or blended learning. A primary challenge is how to ditch the concept of chalk-and-talk and allow students ample opportunity to interact with one another and construct knowledge together, in close facilitation with the faculty member. Because not everyone is well-versed in learning technologies, this can seem like a daunting task. Some faculty members struggle with understanding that their students don’t need to be in the same physical location to participate in group work or to collaborate with one another (and/or the faculty member), but once they see their distance course in action, they have context with which to change their tune. You can teach an old (or young) dog new tricks! Collaborative Learning Collaborative learning is an instructional approach that requires students to work closely with one another, often participating in group work. The educator is responsible for providing the information to the students, but the students must work collaboratively to apply the learned information when completing activities, assignments, or projects. The educator will monitor the students to ensure that the learned information is being applied correctly, but they typically act as an observer within a collaborative learning environment and less of an enforcer. When you think about it, collaborative learning feeds on the concept of constructivism in that multiple individuals are pooling their experiences and ‘resources’ (e.g. prior learning) to learn the subject matter together. If you really want to get specific, collaborative learning is deep-seated in Lev Vygotsky’s concept of ‘zone of proximal development’, which indicates that individuals will learn information from one another (in Vygotsky’s case, he was specifically talking about children modelling their behaviours after adults) simply by learning like information near one another. With the emergence of Web 2.0 (more on that in another week), education is bursting at the seams with technologies that enhance collaborative approaches (e.g. wikis, blogs, social media, etc.), and this doesn’t apply to just the education sector. Technology examples, please! Off the top of my head, I can think of several technologies that are used to enhance learning: Blackboard Collaborate (used for real-time VOIP classes), Twitter, Adobe Connect. As for examples that don’t specifically pertain to the education sector (but which can also be used), I’m drawn to technologies such as: Google Hangouts, Google Drive, Dropbox, and any Webinar application. Resources Still confused? Aching for more information? Perhaps you want to write your thesis on Collaborative Learning. Here you go: - What is Collaborative Learning and Why is it Important? - Collaborative Learning  - Group Work and Collaborative Learning (Ryerson University) - 20 Collaborative Learning Tips and Strategies for Teachers - Zone of Proximal Development - Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding in the Classroom